Morning work in kindergarten is not busywork. It’s meaningful and is a great way for your students to start their day. Here are my 3 Reasons Morning Work Is Meaningful and why it should be a staple in your classroom first thing in the morning. Make sure you read to the end because I’m giving you a free morning work resource!
Morning Work In Kindergarten
STRUCTURE
Kindergarten students need scheduled morning work time. They work best when they know what to expect for each school day. Each morning, my students know our morning routine. We come in, unpack, stand for pledges and announcements and then do our morning work. I love this structure for my own classroom because it helps my students get settled a little bit and adjust to their surroundings.
REINFORCEMENT
When you use morning work correctly, it should reinforce skills that you previously taught your students. The purpose of morning work is to PRACTICE these skills in different ways and reinforce them. For example, students can work on math activities, fine motor activities, literacy activities, sight words, and more! If a student has not mastered an objective, this practice should help. In addition, I allow students to help one another if they are sitting at the same table, but they are not allowed to do other students’ work. Peer tutoring is a great opportunity for students to learn important social skills, creating a learning environment based on student collaboration.
INDEPENDENCE
Morning work should be independent, not in small groups. As a teacher, I want morning work to be purposeful for my students and myself. I need ten minutes for my students to come into class so I can state my morning meeting messages and get everyone settled.
What Inspired My Morning Work Routine?
A few years ago, I looked everywhere for kindergarten morning work packs. Though I found many traditional morning work activities, I needed more than just a great worksheet. For my kindergarten classroom, morning work needed to be independent. So, I decided I would just create what I needed.
I started with a template that had three learning objectives for each week. I would provide directions and spend more time answering questions if needed on the first day of the week. However, morning work was independent during the remainder of the week because the morning work instructions, learning objectives, and overall concept did not change, just the answers do. After implementing these new activities, I knew I had hit the jackpot! My students thrived with these types of activities, and I could do my own “morning work.” I don’t have to say, “Just give me five minutes!” anymore.
What else helped my kindergarten morning work routine run successfully? Each day, I chose one of these Mr. Sketch scented markers as our “smell of the day.”
I announce this entry task before we begin morning work. Then, after the students complete their morning work, I put a “Smelly Smiley” on their work if they have done their best. This symbol is a fun way to motivate your students! They also know that if they don’t get a Smelly Smiley, they do not get to move on the Early Finishers, which is my second favorite system!
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What Teachers Are Saying
“Children love this because they feel successful!” “Has saved me much time and dozens of questions! Love it!” “Love this! Completely changed how we do our mornings now!” “These are perfect for young students and are one of the first morning work packets they can complete with minimal support. The pages also give me a good idea of the skills I need to reteach.”
There are tons of morning work options out there. So, I hope you find what works best for you and meets your students’ needs. No matter where you get your morning work from, please know that it’s not busywork. Instead, it is a quick way to reinforce important skills and allow students to work independently.
Nice and really helpful blog
I recently attended a Writing training from the amazing Becky Koesel here in the Houston area. She is a major supporter and avid teacher of Lucy Caulkin’s writing. As I sat there for three days getting more and more excited about writing, I flipped over to Pinterest and found a friend had been pinning fun and witty writing prompts. For example there is “Wishing Well Wednesday” (write something that you wish for) and “Marvel-ous Monday” (what is a superpower that you would want to have). I am seriously considering these for morning work. I feel that it will get the children thinking critically and reinforce the importance of writing. I’m thinking at first I may need to provide some framework, either putting my reply up or writing a response with blanks for them to fill in, but I can’t wait to see what happens!